Search found 217 matches

"In the Grand Prix Plushenko will not participate, since there was a risk that he might be assigned to any stage, for example, in the early season in America, where to go not ready is no point," - Mishin said in a telephone conversation. - "And that he would be released from the performance there, for him would be impossible - mostly because of history, related to the 2010 World Championship.".... How anyone can sign up Plushy on GP, which he not wants? :du_ma_et: :ne_vi_del:

I guess because Plushy currently does not have high enough ISU ranking, if he participates in the Grand Prix Series at all this year, he will not be able to choose which event? And if that actually happens, he can't even withdraw, because of what happened with the ISU last year?

It's obvious that Plushy needs more time to recover from his surgeries. Even CoR, which I think is the last event this year, is too early, so clearly earlier stages like Skate America are out of the question. But I have to say that the stuff about "history related to the 2010 World Championship" is again worrying to me. I really hope the ISU doesn't try to use that ridiculous and unjust disqualification farce to create further trouble for him in the future, for instance somehow using it to pressure him to never withdraw from a competition due to injury again...(okay maybe I'm paranoid)

In hindsight, Tango Amore might be the right choice for him at that time. It is a program that he felt comfortable with, the style is very original and mature, you don't get to see skaters do a very sensual and sexy program in competition that often, :-)

And as an exhibition program, oh boy, the audience just loves it! He almost blew 18,000 people off with that program in Artistry On Ice last year. I have read nothing but raving review after that performance in China, people calling it "the highlight of the night", and "the perfect combination of dancing and music".

I agree with every word of this! :plush39:

About Plushy's performance of Tango Amore in Beijing last year, I want to mention one of the most wonderful compliments to Plushy I've ever read, from a Chinese Weir fan (who did not know much about Plushy before): she said that as soon as he came out onto the ice, she literally felt the air pressure change, a kind of mysterious energy physically pushing against her chest, something that could only be described as an "aura", and all of a sudden she began to see how things like the Bermuda Triangle and other strange phenomena could be possible, because there are no other explanations for powers like this! :plush34:

Here's another reason for someone to hate Plushy - these probably do not like mysteries and Bermuda triangles :hi_hi_hi:

;;-))) ;;-)))

(But in a way, I think it is actually true: there's something about Plushy that is so different, "larger than life" (as lilywang said), I suspect that some people simply cannot understand him. And some people just hate things they cannot understand, because of the limitations of their own minds...)

I don't think that skating to Je suis malade, an exhibition, is the same with skating to a new program. What are the "judges' testing, if Evgeni is in a good shape? I think he really needs a feed-back before he enters the competitions. :-(

Of course it is not the same, but from the way the test skate was run, I think Plushy was more like a special guest than one of the skaters being "tested". And just personally, as a fan, seeing him in good shape and happy is more important to me than judges.

And it's not as if he and his team don't know what they are doing, frankly. There are plenty of chances for feedback. At JO, for one thing.

Thank you so much for translating this amazing interview, Cekoni and Darina! :plush40: :plush31: And also, thank you so much to all the wonderful Russian fans, who were always there to show him support and love...I am so moved by every word of his. I feel that as long as he choose to stay in this sport, I will support him.

(And oh, by the way, shall we perhaps see some "viam supervadet vadens" banners at future competitions? :-) )

Opining on Japan Open (1 of 3): What do you mean Chan won with three falls?

A few thoughts on Japan Open, which took place over the weekend, featuring some fantastic performances by stars former, current, and future. Let’s take a look at the winning team, Team North America, first.

PATRICK CHAN: Base values saved him.After it was all said and done, there was a lot of chatter about how Patrick Chan could have won the event with three falls. Well, let’s keep in mind that his technical base value was the highest of all the men. He fully-rotated two quads and five triples. Falling on first quad toe was worth more than the base value of a triple lutz. My guess is that skate would have put him no higher than third in the 6.0 system, but the adding up of technical value in the IJS helped him win (and will likely continue to help him in the future as long as he is quad-friendly).

An aside, my favorite move of his free skate was the death drop (check it out around 2:30). Maybe not the biggest death drop ever, but it’s got a great deal of airtime and stretch. Tough to find that kind of conviction into a jump spin when there are so many other things that require loads of energy to complete.

.....

I noticed there was no mention of Chan's PCS (in particular the ridiculous PE and IN scores), nor the automatic GOE plus on everything he actually managed to land. I've seen this kind of arguments from other NA "experts" before: if Chan wins with 3 or 4 falls it's all because of his base score and how his quads were fully rotated even if he fell, meanwhile deflecting attention away from his GOE and PCS scores, which, IMO is frankly the real issue. (Most amazingly, I've actually seen people suggest the fact that Chan can get away with this is therefore the fault of Plushy and his supporters, for promoting the quad after Vancouver! :kli_ny: )

But I think this columnist from the Examiner also predicted both Artur and Liza in 6th places before the competition started. :plush42: :plush42: But he said some nice things about them now, so I am not too annoyed at him... :ta_n_cor:

Actually it is possible. In my opinion only Kozuka is able to challenge him but unfortunatelly he is not very consistent .....

And, um, Chan is? :ps_ih: Well, I guess his scores are consistent.

I guess actually what I meant is all the NA experts going on about quads and base scores are not being his haters, actually, my feeling is that they're justifying his scores by distracting attention from what many people (such as Mishin) consider the real and much more glaring issue, namely his PCS (other than SS and TR) and GOE scores. And this in part reflects a general problem with FS scoring right now, which is that PCS scores seem to have less to do with how a skater performs in the given competition, and more to do with what the judges think about him/her in general. (And also that different styles are being discouraged, it's Chan/Nichol = good skating, everything else = bad.) If that is the case, why bother to have competitions at all?

I´m not talking about their personal opinions, if they like Plushy´s footwork or not. They are absolutly right that judges should have no difficulty in asigning the levels, this is a fact, not a personal opinion. Let´s be realistic, Evgeni´s footwoork in 2010 wasn´t great and it will cost him a lot of points if he does not improve it. :-( I remember people were saying the same in 2009, when he came back, that he had plenty of time to work on the footwork until the Olys, nevertheless it wasn´t enough to achieve sensational GOE. And he had the same team, Mishin and D. Advish.

I guess we will have to wait until after Plushy's first competition to know the result. But like I said, this time, there is enough time for Plushy to experiment all the options before the Olympics. So do not worry too much and just be happy that Plusy is in great shape and a high spirit of training :plush45:

Of course I´m happy that Plushy is in a great shape and so eager to train and compete. But I don´t want him to train in vain, to be in excellent form and lose because of the programs. :-(

First of all, my apologies for yet another very long and rambling post.

If I recall correctly, Evgeni's footwork in 2010 were level 3, not the very highest but by no means below average. Also, I recall that at the 2010 Olympics, Lysacek received some highly debated level 4 ratings on his footwork sequences. (Evgeni himself mentioned the fact that other skaters had the levels of their footwork raised without any actual changes.) I agree that there should not be personal opinions involved in assigning levels to elements in skating, but I do not believe this is the case in reality. And there certain is a great deal of personal opinions involved in assigning GOE scores, and frequently these are not even opinions about the skater's actual performance, but motivated by off-ice political or personal factors. The judges have amply proven this, for instance Joe Inman with his email, and other judges in openly defending that email.

We all want Evgeni to get the maximal amount of score he can in competitions, of course. There is no argument about that. However, it may be that not having Level 4 footwork with +3 GOE will cost him a lot of points, or it may be that simply being Evgeni Plushenko will cost him a lot of points. I guess, maybe a point to consider is that no matter how much we talk about how he should "play by the rules", when the people who are supposed to apply those rules do so according to their own agendas and favoritism, then these are things a skater and his team cannot necessarily change. And personally, I have never seen any FS fan--of any kind--claim that judges have no agendas.

As for what happened at Vancouver, one can blame Evgeni's footwork or transitions or other aspects of his choreography, but to me--just my own personal opinion, of course--this both ignores the realities of Evgeni's physical condition at the time, and somewhat misses the point. My own belief is that Evgeni should have won at Vancouver as it were , based on how he and the others performed at the time (others may disagree). Of course, this is absolutely not to say that he cannot, or should not, or need not improve on various aspects of his programs for the coming seasons, but merely my feelings on that particular season and competition, in and of itself--since it was mentioned. In any case, things have changed since 2010--Evgeni's condition, the amount of time he has, the general state of men's skating, the rules themselves.

We certain can talk about different aspects of Evgeni's skating, and talk about what each of us likes or does not like. I do understand your desire to see Evgeni win; I am sure that we all share that desire. However--I hope you will pardon me, and it certainly is not my intention to start an argument with you--frankly, and again just for myself, I find it absolutely incomprehensible to suggest that any skater would "train in vain" just because he and his team choose to do things one way and not another. (I want to emphasize the word "choose" here--based on Evgeni's condition, style, abilities, and convictions about figure skating. Because I absolutely do not believe, even for a fraction of a second, that Evgeni and his team do not know what they are doing.) Right now, all we have is a few seconds of practice. But even if (and this is nothing but an if) the competitions did happen and he didn't get the highest transition score, or footwork level or GOE, whatever, to say that he "trained in vain"--just to be clear, I am only talking about these particular words--is, in my honest opinion, inconsiderate of his (and his team's) effort, and of their understanding of figure skating. And I am not even saying this just because it's Evgeni: I would say this about any other skater as well.

And back to Evgeni's condition. I am extremely happy and relieved that he is physically better now, and that he is in no pain. I hope fervently and everyday that things stay this way. Nevertheless, he will be 29 years old in a week. His accumulation of old injuries is huge, even for this sport. A couple of weeks ago there was this whole story by Vaitsekhovskaya about what terrible state Evgeni's knees were in, how his muscles had atrophied, how the treatments failed, etc. That report turned out to be a lie--as many of us expected at the time--but just because Evgeni is in good physical condition, it does not mean that all of a sudden things are or should be easy for him. And this does not mean if he doesn't do things this way or that way or get all level 4 with +3 GOE it would be because he's "a fool" (to quote Yagudin's words, or because he doesn't want to win, or because he and his team does not understand how the current scoring system works. Because absolutely nothing of what Evgeni does on ice is easy (no matter how easy he makes it look). Remember how he said this second comeback is many times harder than the first? I believe him completely in this, and it doesn't change.

Please don't get me wrong, I completely understand that you want to see Evgeni get all the points he can, and that's where you're coming from. I want the same, and I'm sure all fans want the same. However, we fans are just sitting behind computer screens. We're not the one on the ice. We're not the one who's had a dozen (or is it more? I've lost count) operations. We're not the one who has to deal with the politics of the ISU and the Russian Fed, and every kind of malicious people and everything else. We're not the one fighting against time and the laws of nature. I'm only speaking for myself, but my feeling is that I can hope and wish him to win or to give us another great program or another great piece of art (or perhaps to put it more selfishly, something I love), but I myself cannot in good conscience expect or demand anything more out of him. Because Evgeni has already given us far, far more than anyone could possibly expect. Anything else would only be an extra gift.

(Again, I apologize for this long rant. I am a wordy person, I guess.)

I find Murray's comments much more rude than Anisina by a long, long shot. I don't know much about ice dancing, but just reading what she said, personally I don't think she should have talked about "North American dancers" and "Americanization", because she doesn't explain how why the current state of things necessarily favor North Americans, and it doesn't add to her argument. But all the other issues she mentioned have some validity, whether you agree with her view of what ice dancing should be like or not. After all, she's not the only one who thinks the new COP system takes something away from the art of skating. (Which, by the way, is a different issue from how much weight art should have in skating.)

If you disagree with her, that's fine, but argue against her point of view about ice dancing. However, Murray had no argument: all of his words were nothing but ad hominem attacks. To accuse someone of involvement in the Olympic corruption scandal is a very serious thing, and you'd better have something a lot more solid than "likely" to base it on. As for cold-war mentality... Remember the constant and saturation-level vilification of Plushy in American mainstream media (one of the most powerful machines in the world) not so long ago? And it's not even just Plushy (although it was particularly bad against him in 2010), North Americans have been portraying Russian skaters like this for years. Murray's words are frankly laughable, and given North America's record on cold-war mentality, hypocritical. (Yeah, I know this sentence above is also based on the fact that he's American, but there's no substance in anything he said that can actually be argued with seriously.)

Thank you so much, Cekoni, for translating this amazing--and long--interview! :plush39: :bra_vo:

Several times while reading it, I felt so deeply overwhelmed by what a remarkable person our Plushy is, and by his incredible love for figure skating. Especially that long response he gave in the second section, about the pain and the hardness of returning, starting all over again after having gained everything, no quiet pensioner's life, being born for this sport. It's...I don't know how to express it. So many people have called him "inspirational" and there is no other word for it.

I'm not quite sure if this is the right place, but I have a question that's not completely related to Plushy, and I'm wondering if some of you girls may know the answer. I was just looking around on youtube, and happened to come upon this ballet version of the famous Russian novel "Master and Margarita", choreographed by David Avdish (according to Wiki, it's from 2007):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2GKx6jkGHE

I'm just curious, is this the same person as "our" David? Surely there aren't two Russian choreographers with exactly the same name?

While Mishin (Piseev, anyone...) do not succeed to change something with criticism, not must be allowed to Chan wins Plushy in that way. In addition, the "tactical" is wrong that people to get used that Plushy can be defeated (with current "pro-chan" judging) - if it becomes "normal", it will remain forever :plush35:

I think it's some of Mishin's considerations. In any case, we will see what will happening in future... :plush34:

Defeat Chan with "criticism"????? :sh_ок: Next year the Worlds are in CHANADA!!!!!! The chances that someone beats Chan are 0,000000000001%. Plushy has to defeat Chan with a strong program, not Mishin or Piseev. That's what we need, more politics and everybody will scream that Chan has been robbed, if he ever loses to Plushy!!!! :plush30: That's what you want, the 2002 scandal reloaded????? :plush34: Nobody can judge in advance if Chan is beatable or not. :nel-zya:

I guess what Cekoni meant is that under current judging situations, no body can beat Chan. Under certain circumstances to let plushy to compete while he cannot perform 100% is not worthy. If people establish the image of Chan is invicible to anybody (god helps us!!! He is really good at skating but he can seldom perform a clean program during a whole season. I think he is really unique since nobody can rule the FS with so many un-cleaned programs, that is just WRONG!!!!!), it is difficult to reverse the situation.

Actually Chan is robbing our feelings by getting into the first place (ok maybe this time he deserves it since nobody really provided a clean program, but season best?) with could-he-ever-skate-clean program, personally I really curious to know if Plushy can perform a clean good program against Chan's crapy performance, what would be the result.

Yes, this exactly. Politics in skating is an ugly thing, but the fact is that it is there. I think what Cekoni meant is if you stay quiet and don't fight to express your voice, then you are yielding the field of public opinion to others, and they will dictate what is or isn't "good skating" according to their own interests. You can try to follow the trend, but then you'll always be at a disadvantage compared to them.

Of course we'd like to see a good program from Plushy, and I think it is necessary if her were to try to win, but who gets to control what is or isn't a "good" program? More generally, who gets to decide what is or isn't to be valued in skating? I saw some instruction videos for judges on how to give PCS scores, and nearly all the "positive" examples were programs choreographed by Nichols. They're setting up this one style above all others. And yes, Chan has great skating skills (when he doesn't lose control of it) and lots of transitions, but why should he get automatically higher PE and IN scores as well? I've seen people argue, "but he has the best skating skills, and that's the most important". But then why are there 5 separate categories in PCS then? Why not just say, "skating skills are worth a maximum of 50 points" and be done with it? And even within skating skills, there are different styles. In my opinion, Plushy has great skating skills, but it is more of a style that emphasizes ease, lightness and naturalness instead of a lot of very deep edges and twists-and-turns (the question of speed aside). Why should one style be valued above the other? Who gets to dictate that?

With Chan's victories during this and the last season, I believe some of them were deserved, some, maybe not so much. But it doesn't matter. Basically they are defining the standards as "good program = Nichols", and "good skating = Chan", and when that happens, then indeed Chan is unbeatable no matter how well or badly he or others do. The whole thing becomes a farce: and what is the point of even having a competition, then?

As for the 2002 scandal, personally I don't think that is the same. In that situation, there were some evidence of alleged underhanded dealings (though as I understood it, the facts were never completely clear). I sure do hope desperately that it doesn't get to a point where people get used to it enough to actually think Chan (or any skater, for that matter, even Plushy) is supposed to always win somehow because he is "just better", or that if anyone happens to beat him then it automatically means he must be robbed. Because when that happens, figure skating indeed would have stopped being a sport.

When it comes to the question of this season's Worlds, I don't know, frankly that will depend on a lot of factors. Let's just try to take it one competition at a time, perhaps?

But Evgeni didn't make an average of 1-2 mistakes per SP and 2-3 mistakes per LP....And even though he had plenty of haters even then, I don't recall any of his wins were controversial as some of Chan's were.

However, it is true that clean skates are a lot rarer with other skaters, too, this season. But even nowadays, I do think that any other skater who makes as many mistakes as Chan does would be seen as a "headcase".

Evgeni skated mostly under 6.0, when a fall on a quad or a combo use to kill a skater's chances to win. Under COP he could have won easily with a bounch of mistakes. Some of his scores (aka 2006 Olympics) are still controversial.

I was talking about placement rather than scores. In any case Evgeni did not win with a bunch of mistakes even under the COP system. Other than Evgeni, I also don't see any other skater winning under the COP system with as many mistakes as Chan makes, with such a high level of frequency.

I see people say how he has more difficult programs than others, which is true, and it's good that he's trying to do them. But so far, he hasn't generally proven the ability to actually handle his programs cleanly, so frankly I think his level of difficulty is, in some sense, hypothetical.

Chan is a fine skaters and he has lots of strengths compared to other skaters competing currently, but I don't think he is comparable with Evgeni, nor do I think his position in men's skating now is comparable to Evgeni's between 2002 and 2006.

You have to watch him live, Chan is faster than anybody else. Aranjuez is indeed difficult, that´s why he falls so much, the entries on the jumps are very difficult. :a_g_a:

I watch him online at GPF for his SP. He is fast and the edges etc. are very good. But this is not only speed skating, this is performing art on ice too. I repeat, Chan is a GREAT skater as Plushy also once said. I know couple of friends watched him live are also impressed about his skating speed. But that does not mean his program is piece of art. It is COP GREAT program, that is all.

Chan does have great speed and edges (again, when he doesn't lose control of it) and is indeed a very remarkable skater, and Aranjuez is a very difficult program. But in a way, to say "he falls so much because it's so difficult" is just another way of saying "it's beyond his abilities", and in my opinion should not be used as a justification for not penalizing him for the falls (in the sense of for instance PCS, when other skaters are penalized when they fall). And I think all the talk about the difficulty of his programs is somewhat moot, because so far this season, he hasn't demonstrated the ability to actually skate it through cleanly. Maybe he'll manage it later in the season, but until then, he should be evaluated based on what he actually manages to do, and not on the theoretical level of difficulty of his programs.

Chan does have great speed and edges (again, when he doesn't lose control of it) and is indeed a very remarkable skater, and Aranjuez is a very difficult program. But in a way, to say "he falls so much because it's so difficult" is just another way of saying "it's beyond his abilities", and in my opinion should not be used as a justification for not penalizing him for the falls. And I think all the talk about the difficulty of his programs is somewhat moot, because so far this season, he hasn't demonstrated the ability to actually skate it through cleanly. Maybe he'll manage it later in the season, but until then, he should be evaluated based on what he actually manages to do, and not on the theoretical level of difficulty of his programs.

Exactly! The program is beyond his abilities, but due to the huge margin between him and the other skaters, he didn´t change anything. Watch the entry into the 3Lz, he fell twice on that jump (Japan Open and GPF), yet, I believe he´ll keep it. No matter how many mistakes he does on jumps, the PCS will save him. His philosophy is sacrifice the jumps but save the transitions, which I think is a smart approach.

Well, he doesn't always save the transitions, either. :-)

Chan's approach is smart for him--and only for him, because he gets special treatment. As for how to devise a system that encourages difficult jumps/footwork/spins/transitions fairly and maybe if you even want to throw in artistry....Well, frankly no system is of use if the people who implement them--the judges--are not interested in fairness. I think the COP system, compared to the old one, in fact give the judges more room for messing with the scores, and to hide behind the various components of both the TES and PCS. In addition to viewers feeling that they do not understand the scoring, the ISU and the "experts" are basically telling them: you are not supposed to understand the scoring. This is very alienating and I think harmful to the sport.

So happy that our Plushy is back! plush48 plush48 Of course he's still far from his top condition and the jumps are not all perfect yet, but remember everything that has happened this year, how only three months ago some "medical expert" nearly destroyed his knee with his botched injection, and how he was still in rehab by late September, how he only began to get his quad back a few days before the competition started....I can only agree with Tarasova, "this is a phenomeon".

I have been watching the SP a few more times, and I love the music for it more and moe, especially the fact that the first part is so different from the second. The spins and footwork are better than before and have new elements to them. Their levels still can be increased, but from what Plushy said after the competition, I believe this will happen. (One thing I want to mention is that I remember in an old interview, from maybe 05 or 06, Plushy once said that he felt serpentine sequences were under-appreciated under the new COP system, and he would like to see elements of it more in programs.)

I have seen some people criticize this program for having all three jumps in the first part. It is true that nowadays, it's considered "better" to have everything "spaced out evenly" in programs. So maybe this is a technical flaw, but I am starting to think that "evenness" is not necessarily the right thing for this particular program, if only from an artistic point of view (though I don't know how much "art" is worth in judges' eyes). It seems to me the climax of the program, the actual "storm", is still in the second part, in the footwork sequence, so to me, the program does not feel front-loaded.

Perhaps I am over-interpreting things, but if we really see the program as a storm, then there is a difference between how it feels before the storm--the sense of pressure and heaviness in the air, the rising wind, the feeling of expectation. Then the real storm comes in an outburst of fury and passion, and the tension is released. To my own ears, I think something of this is reflected in the music for the program. So maybe it makes sense that the first part of the program is so different from the second part, in terms of the types of elements it contains, and in terms of rhythm and feeling. And jumps (including the long strokes leading up to them) have a different rhythm compared to spins and footwork. What I am vaguely feeling is that while having all three jumps in the first part is generally considered a flaw in a SP program, it can be argued that in this case, there is a certain aesthetic justification for it, which I actually find extremely interesting.

Of course, I don't want to interpret any of Plushy's programs too literally. Again, this is probably just my own mind making things up, but such themes and feelings remind me of the "Sturm und Drang"--Storm and Stress--of Romanticism. Performance-wise, I get the sense Plushy is also not yet at 100%: after all, he himself said how he needed to overcome the big psychological barrier of competing again. But the beauty of his movements, the aristocratic aura, and the sense of passion are in full force alreay And of course, the combination of grace and power, and also of charisma.

If I were to nitpick the SP performace, based on nothing but my personal notions and tastes, maybe I could even say that possibly there was actually a little bit too much charisma for this program. Partly this was from comparison with the practice video from before the SP, but somehow I get the suspicion that the blown kiss before the step sequence was not actually in the choreography.... ::yaz-yk: And he also replaced the ending pose with a fist pump and another blown kiss. I am of two minds about it. On one hand it is clear that Plushy was just returning again for the first time, he was in love with competition and the audience and he's happy, and that makes me happy. On the other hand, I got the sense it did "break character" somewhat, and just for my own tastes, I felt it broke the tension a little. Just for this particular program, I wonder what it would look like if he made it a little more...not colder exactly, but a little more alone , perhaps. (Of course, I am not saying he should do things one way or another, or that others need to interpret things similarly as me. I am absolutely certain that every artistic choice he makes is his own. But I am a bit curious.)

Once again, I apologize for yet another terribly long post....I know all of this nonsense--based on no more than my own overactive imagination--do not necessarily make it fit into the strict mold of the likes of Lori Nichol would consider a "good" program, but somehow I can't help going on about it....(as usual)

I know Plushenko's fans and I don't want to fight with anyone (I admire Plushenko and imo he was the best ever...), but I can't keep silence, then his short program.

I'm asking at myself if his coreographer is sleeping or what else...Plushenko's short program seems an exibition and not a good exibition: what does he do in his coreography? Imo the coreography doesn't exist and he do his typical movements (kisses and other stuff) for the audience.So... I can understand a program like this when he skates in exibition, but who declares (like me) Patrick Chan's lack in the coreography, is now disappointed by Plushenko's short program: a big skater like Plushenko can does more, more better than kisses and winks. Suppose a person who doesn't know Plushenko (because he isn't intressed in figure skating), can he/she to cheer, to scream and to excited for Evgeny? No. This is the answer.And I'm writting all this because some ages ago, Plushenko was able to fascinate all the world (who doesn't know what figure skate is too!) not only his fans, and this was his biggest magic... but I can't see it anymore. I can't belive it's so hard to find a good coreography for Plushenko: he can does all, really all... so, why only kisses and winks? What is his corepgrapher doing? He is afraid to say to Plushenko: "Do this and this and not this?"Ok, Plushenko can be the best, but the scores speak clear: at the Worlds it will be head-to-head with Chan, why does he present a coreography lower like this?

What's the problem? Plushenko belives the fans don't cheer and excite if he doesn't send kisses?For me, it's the opposite.Anyway, maybe Plushenko want to thank his fans for their support... so, he needs only to skate and to show this in his eyes, nothing else to be unforgettable.

With the blown kisses in this particular performance of the SP, I still feel it is more a matter of performance than choreography. From the video of the practice before the competition, there was in fact an ending pose that I thought was both beautiful and very fitting; I hope we will see it the next time. With the blown kiss before the step sequence, I am not certain what is meant to be there; even if it were actually an empty spot, from what we've heard Plushy say, I am certain they will find something that works there. (However, I must say I don't know anything about "winks", given that none of the videos I've seen so far had any close-ups while the SP was going on.)

With the matter of "Plushenko was able to fascinate all the world and not just his fans" in the past, to me this statement seems to imply that the only people moved by him now are his fans. Please forgive me for this, but it seems to me a rather big thing to claim to speak not only for one's self, but for the rest of "the world". And I have seen plenty of evidence that this statment--in and of itself--is not true. With his programs from the 09/10 season, Aranjuez and Tango Amore, which many figure skating experts are very fond of criticizing (sometimes bashing), I have known many new fans who came to Plushenko because of them, because they,who didn't know much about him before, were moved and fell in love with those programs. (And maybe a slightly sideways comment: I am not certain that how much "choreography" there is has all that much to do anymore with what is or isn't able to move viewers, especially "non-experts", in today's figure skating.)

And with the matter of the choreographer being "asleep", I must respectfully disagree. The more I watch this program, the more I am convinced this is a well-considered and artistically ambitious program, into which a lot of thought has already been put. (True, I am a fan and maybe I am imagining things that aren't necessarily intended or even really there, but in the end, we are all subjective.) There are still various details that can be improved or filled in, but the overall structure and theme are sound, asymmetrical but not unbalanced, which I myself find rather remarkable. I admit that very likely all of this is completely meaningless in figure skating nowadays, but personally, I admire Plushy and his team for what I have already seen of the attempt. It may not fit in with the (in my opinion increasingly narrow) ideas of what is "good" in skating that the ISU and the experts are promoting, but I am a firm believer that in art, there are no absolute good or bad elements, only what is fitting and what is not. Of course, figure skating is not only art; there are of course lots of constraints on competition programs. But I think as long as figure skating still makes a pretense of having some aspect of art to it, this is something that will have to be taken into account, at least a little.

And something else, for which I'll apologize in advance. This is actually just something more general, which I happen to want to get off my chest recently; I certain don't mean it as a particular criticism against you or your post. But I have seen quite a few people have said "Plushy deserves to skate better programs" or "why can't he skate better programs", and I am sure they mean only well by it, but to be quite honest, I'm afraid statement like this still come across to me as a little patronizing. I believe that only Evgeni Plushenko himself, along with his team that is so close to him, gets to decide what he should or needs or deserves to skate. And from what I've seen, I am convinced that he--and his team--have never, ever decided such things stupidly or thoughtlessly, nor have any of them ever been "afraid" of saying what is needed to him, even when his programs do not conform to what is COP-friendly, and even when they do not move or touch you personally. For this particular short program, from what Plushy has said during the past year, I think they had other ideas and options, possibly even other already-choreographed programs. He chose this one. If one does not agree with his artistic choices, then in my opinion one might as well say it as such, and yes, go ahead and place the blame squarely on his shoulders (of course with the knowledge that one is only speaking for one's personal self). That amount of respect I think he does deserve (again, just my own personal opinion).